Ballard of Daniel Baker

Patchwork Quilts: #3 in my attempt to bridge the gap between the picture and a thousand words and taking advantage of the fact that it's a Mono-Monday




Back in the '60s when I attended a small college in Maine I often went wandering on Sunday afternoons, walking the back roads and exploring old cemeteries and abandoned farms and fields. Those days I couldn't afford much of a camera or the cost of developing the film, but I generally had a pad and a pencil with me. On one afternoon I ran across a grave stone that intrigued me since the words I read were as much a short story as an epitaph. I thought at the time that there was a song there, it just took forty years for me to get around to it


The Ballard of Daniel Baker

My name is Daniel Baker, my age was thirty-four
I was a young lieutenant in the Second British War
I came back home to farm the land with my mother wife and son
But left this world most tragically before my work was done,
Before my work was done

(chorus)
The discharge of a pistol, an accidental gun,
First I cried and then I died at the setting of the sun.


It was a celebration, a parade in old Bath Maine,
Crowds lined the streets to laugh and cheer, some even called my name
But a shot rang out and there I fell, a bullet in my breast
My world turned gray and then turned black as the sun set in the west,
The sun set in the west

(chorus)
.
So as you walk these hallowed grounds, before you go your way
Stop to think of my sad tale of life and end of days,
For there will come a time my friend when you sing my cold sad song
Our days are numbered and we never know, if they be short or long,
They be short or long.

(chorus)

(spoken)

In Memory of Lt Daniel Baker
who
at a Military Parade
in Bath
was
by the casual discharge of a
pistol suddenly brought
to his end. Sept 12, 1814
in the 34th year of his age
Regretted and Lamented
by all who knew him

headstone in Topsham Maine cemetery

Thank you again friends for your patience as I decide where to find a home for patchwork quilts of images and small stories. Be safe. Be kind. Care ... and the adventure continues.